Czech Republic

The Czech Republic uses the public stocks of the Administration of the State Material Reserves (ASMR) to fully meet its minimum stockholding obligation as a member of the European Union.

These reserves are held, on behalf of the ASMR, by the state-owned companies MERO and CEPRO (and to a smaller extent by the three domestic refineries and other private companies). There are no stockholding obligations on industry; however, in a declared state of emergency, the government has statutory powers over industry's commercially held stocks.

Legislation specifies that ASMR stocks must be equivalent to at least 90 days of consumption, as required by the European Union, and no less than the amount necessary to meet the IEA net import requirement. The ASMR typically holds stocks in excess of the 90 days of consumption in order to facilitate stock turnover while maintaining consistently more than the minimum level.

The composition of ASMR stocks is legally limited to a maximum of 60% crude or semi-finished products, and at least 40% refined petroleum products. The ASMR does not hold storage capacity for emergency oil stocks: volumes of public stocks are held by designated storage operators and refiners. For the most part, the state-owned companies MERO and CEPRO hold crude and product, respectively. Storage capacity used for ASMR stocks must meet certain requirements regarding minimum size and drawdown rates.

All volumes of the ASMR crude oil are held in separate tanks; approximately 5% of product stocks are co-mingled with commercial stocks. There are no restrictions or requirements for specific locations of ASMR stocks within the Czech Republic. ASMR stocks may be held outside the Czech Republic under bilateral agreement, with a limit of no more than 18 days of internal consumption. MERO has storage facilities in Germany. The Czech Republic has bilateral stockholding agreements with Germany and the Slovak Republic.